Incubator? What to choose??

[austintgraf]

Last year I had some luck out of a large bator but this year I don't have access to that. I have to buy one. the Little Giant was what I was going to buy with automatic egg turners. My cousin has great luck with one but I just want to know what I should get, that is low maiitnence

 

[Gypsy07]

Some people have great hatches with the LGs but they're well known to be tricky to get the hang of and a bit temperamental when it comes to keeping the temperature steady. If your cousin does well with one, he or she could probably teach you how to get the best out of yours, but you might be better with one of the Hovabators, which are very similar in appearance to the LGs but much higher quality and like you say you're wanting, lower maintenance.

 

[rancher hicks]

With any incubator you will have to develop your technique. I have the Genesis 1588 recommended by Speckled hen . $182 , Incu, turner and thermometer, from Incubator Warehouse. If you call ask for Randy, he's very nice. Works good. Shop around. I will also offer you the Article from Practical Poultry magazine. Four pages, but I need your e-mail address. I don't send spam and usually just go and delete whoever I don't recognize so don't worry.

I wish you successful hatching,

Rancher

 

[Mahonri]

Miss Prissy recommended the Genesis 1588 Hovabator to me in 2008. No regrets. Plug and play. the only thing you'll need to do is monitor the humidity and put a tube in so you can easily add warm water when needed.

 

[cmom]

If you do go with an LG, here is a thread with a lot of good tips and tricks for them.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=7906024#p7906024

 

[CarolJ]

Hovabator Genesis 1588 with automatic turner. Easy plus a reasonable price.

 

[wilds of pa]

for the genisis with turner. well worth the cost and no headaches like on most other syro's on the market today. we have two of them which we bought when they first came on the market and are still ticking like new.. we mainly use sportsmen, but when we do smaller scale hatching they cant be beat...., we actually just loaded up the one today

heres ours that we have on our web page

 

[austintgraf]

thanks so much everyone. To be honest im a little gun shy about asking for advice. Usually im the one giving it

Most the time when I need advice I look through the books in my personal library , but there is one thing books sometimes don't offer, experience. Thanks.

 

[tristancolli]

I also would suggest the Hova-Bator. I bough an old Hova-Bator 1583 for 25 dollars with an auto turner and i never thought it would work. i got it at an auction and brought it home plugged bouth the bator and turner in both work great cleaned it and set my first batch of chicken eggs 3 days after i got it set up. I hatched 14 out of 16 eggs. and my qauil hatch rate was a little lower but i wasnt sure if everything was right with the quail or not. but Hova-Bators are the way to got fora good quality and low maintnecy bator.

 

[wilds of pa]

1 thing with the genisis is most are factory set, but if the temp isn't right there are small dip switches underneath thermostat unit that one can change if the temp wasn't correct from factory.

but also you can use those Lil dip switch's to change temps like lets say during a pheasant hatch, which i normal drop the temp for the last 3 days during incubation with pheasant eggs, so one still has the ability to change the temps with these automatic incubators.

the genisis is pretty much a set and forget type other than keeping water in the unit and eggs turned if by hand...

however id recommend buying a different thermometer as the ones with these unit are generally not right, even though you can recalibrate them if you have a second one to correspond with like a small electronic Taylor type from your big box stores.